Jess's bomb explodes right on the armored man, dealing substantial damage and really heating things up under his armor. Matt's splash of acid connects, dealing some minor damage to the man.
The goblins attack Shae and Bereket with dogslicers, missing Shae and dealing a mild blow to Bereket.
Bereket notices that Bruthazmus's face has grown feathers on the sides of it, seemingly a side-effect of the potion he consumed. Bruthazmus draws back an arrow to shoot Bereket, giving the warpriest the opportunity to strike. Unfortunately Bereket's attack misses, while Bruthazmus's arrow connects in a powerful way.
"Kinda busy in here!" Shae shouts to Matty as she launches a less tentative strike toward the goblin wife closest to Bruthazmus.
for
Bereket tries again to strike the goblin nearer the door--the fewer foes in this room, the better.
Shae and Bereket make very short work of the remaining two goblins. Shae takes the opportunity to properly corner Bruthazmus.
Hollie steps back and drinks the potion, dropping her crossbow in the process. ”I’m fine!” she calls out.
I’m fine... she tries to convince herself.
Drax steps in between the man and Hollie, his teeth and claws scraping on his armor, sending sparks flying up into the air!
Of all of Drax's strikes, only one claw gets past the armor of his target.
Assessing the situation for who the biggest nuisance is, the armored man takes a determined step towards Jess and swings his giant blade down at her. The swing proves near-deadly, and Jess struggles to remain conscious. The armored man, it seems, is also slowing down as well, his breathing having grown haggard.
"Bruthazmus! Get out here and help me with these intruders!"
"Intruders?" Shaedeen shouts into the next room. "You invited us here when you made your unprovoked attack on Sandpoint!"
”Surrender!” Hollie calls out to the man. ”There’s no need for any of you to die! Nualia...she’s confused and misguided! I’m trying to stop her so I can save her!”
Jess is in a pretty bad spot and really has no where to go. She coughs up some blood and laughs "If I'm going down I'm taking you with me in a glorious ball of flame!"
She toss a bomb right at the man, angling it to direct the splash toward the other room and avoid hitting Matthias, Drax and herself.
HP: 6/27
AC: 16
Bombs: [X] [X] [X] [X] [X] [X] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Extracts 1st: CLW (1d8+4) [ ] [ ] [ ], Heightened Awareness [ ]
Extracts 2nd: CMW (2d8+4) [ ] [ ]
"What's going on in there?!" Matthias calls back, hearing crazy noises from Shae's room. He turns and sees Jess in massive trouble... He winces for her and steps back from the man and casts a spell as powerful as he can! A massive burst of light erupts from the small ratfolk but it can't help avoiding Drax!
The spray of colors washes over Drax and the armored man, and while Drax manages to close his eyes in time, the armored man is stunned not only by a barrage of colors from Matthias's hands but also from the scintillating rays reflecting off of Drax's metallic scales. Jess takes her opportunity and throws a bomb at the stunned man point-blank, washing his armor in flame.
for (18-20)
for (18-20)
for
Bruthazmus moves to shoot at Bereket with his bow at point blank range. Both Bereket and Shae take this as an opportunity to strike. They both wound Bruthazmus with Bereket slicing him to great effect. Bruthazmus's shot lands in Bereket's shoulder, further wounding the warpriest.
Hollie steps over and places a healing hand on Jessalissa, closing some of the massive blade gash on her body!
Jess jumps up and down when Matthias' spell effects the man and he just stands there in a daze. She reaches down and picks up his massive, for her, sword and swings it menacingly at him as she sneers "Not so tough now are you!"
She looks to Drask "Hurry! Rip him apart while he can't fight back!"
Draxtherian leaps up onto his back and starts trying to snap his jaws and rake his claws at the softer bits between the armor.
Matthias gulps in concern as he sees his spell bring the man down so his allies can tear into him. He steps back and decides to prepare another spell just in case.
Shaedeen watches the bugbear intently, looking for any little opening for her rapier's tip to exploit.
"Oh--there's one!" she quips with a smile.
for
Hurting from the two arrows now sticking out of his armor, Bereket takes the briefest of moments to channel a touch of Sarenrae's healing power into his own body before bringing his beautiful new scimitar slashing across in front of him.
Jess sets up a mighty flurry of fang and claw for Drax, and the armored man looks as if a single action will take the last of his strength. Shae and Bereket both land painful blows on Bruthazmus, though the bugbear does manage to dodge the worst of Bereket's forceful slash.
Realizing that he cannot keep up with the disadvantages of using a bow in melee combat, Bruthazmus drops his bow and draws a nasty-looking heavy flail from his belt. He tries to hit Bereket with it, but his attack is deflected by the man's shield.
Swaying like a cobra, Shae looks for an opening and then strikes!
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"What is going on that has you so committed to this leader?" Bereket grunts as he deflects the heavy flail. He follows that with another slash of his scimitar.
Hollie looks to the man, pleading with her voice and eyes. "Please, Ser! Yield! There is no need for you to fight for the death for my sister!"
Drax, hearing Hollie try and get the man to surrender and figuring she and Jess and Matthias had things handled from here, turns and heads to aid Bereket and Shae. His head snakes past the man and tries to bite at the thing in the corner as best he can.
Shae lands a painful stab on Bruthazmus, bringing the bugbear one step closer to his demise. Bereket tries to finish the creature off, but his scimitar just barely misses its mark. Drax enters the room to further harry Bruthazmus, though he struggles to get an attack in with his companions between him and his target.
"You've the right of it, aye," the armored man says, stumbling in place as he slowly pulls a vial from his belt. "I'll drink this down and help you stick the bugbear. None o' this is worth dyin' over."
Matthias is shocked by the armored man's change of heart. A lizard's head pokes out of his backpack and the two eye the armored man narrowly, suspiciously, nervously, trying to determine if the man will really help them and isn't buying time to heal himself so he can stab them in the back.
He moves over to Drax and casts a spell on the strong dragon.
Jess, still struggling to hold the mans sword narrows her eyes as she glares at him "No funny business!" She follows his lead and pulls out her infusion to drink it.
HP: 24/27
AC: 16
Bombs: [X] [X] [X] [X] [X] [X] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Extracts 1st: CLW (1d8+4) [X] [X] [X], Heightened Awareness [X]
Extracts 2nd: CMW (2d8+4) [X] [X]
As far as Matt can tell the armored man is more than ready to be a turncoat. He seems like the type of fellow to follow the winning side.
Bruthazmus, unable to escape his situation as cornered as he is but unwilling to surrender, continues to try attacking Bereket to force his way out. The bugbear, rasping in ragged breaths, is once again deflected by Bereket's shield.
The armored man drinks his potion, gasps a sigh of relief, throws the vial to the ground and reaches his hand out to Jess and gesturing for his sword. "Sorry about earlier," he says in a sheepish tone. "Platinum is platinum, you know?"
Bereket smiles in genuine relief as he hears the armored man agree to stop fighting them. Seeing that the bugbear is not having such a change of heart, he continues the fight with steady determination.
Seeing Drax behind him, the warpriest takes a step back to give the dragon an opening.
When Bereket clears the path, Draxtherian snarls and lunges at the bugbear! He digs his claws and teeth into it's filthy hide and begins ripping flesh away as fast as he can!
Shaedeen again flicks out the blade of her rapier with precision, stabbing the bugbear between two ribs.
for
Bereket's attack does not connect, but Drax's flurry shreds the bugbear and Shae's stab ends the creature's life.
If looted, he has: 5 +1 elf bane arrows, potion of cure moderate wounds, mwk studded leather, mwk heavy flail, mwk composite longbow with 17 arrows, 11 pp
Hollie levels her blade still at the armored man. "Who are you? Why were you helping Nualia? What is she doing? Who else is down here with her?" she asks in a flurry of questions.
Matthias nods nervously and titters in agreement "Y.. y... yes! Explain!"
Shocked at Hollie's intensity, the armored man retracts his hand and puts it up in the air. "Names Orik. I'm 'elpin' 'er fer coin, no other reason. She's doin' some research down below. Can't say I know what for, but I know that there's still Tsuto and Lyrie on this floor. That an' some nasty demon dogs."
”And you are willing to help us, in return for our good word to Sheriff Hemlock that you cooperated and provided assistance in apprehending them, alive?” she asks in return, appraising the man and his response.
"Look, long as you don't kill me we can talk the finer points later," Orik says, visibly perturbed by mention of law enforcement."I think Tsuto and Lyrie are holed up by the stairs leading down below. If you'd like to take some time looking around, be my guest, but if Nualia's your goal she's down below."
He seems, as far as Hollie can tell, to be genuinely cooperating with you. Orik just doesn't want to die.
Jess watches Hollie and Orik go back and forth, rubbing the partially healed wound from where he sliced into her with a persistent glare on her face. She moves over to Hollie and taps her on the side to get her attention then motions for her to come closer as she whispers in her ear.
After the lengthy whispering Jess moves back and just glares at the man waiting to see what Hollie decides.
She then turns to him and says "Okay, Orik. Show us around this area that is safe. Then lead the way to the others on this level. Help us try and persuade them to surrender, and if they won't, help us subdue them."
Seeing that Hollie plans to trust the man for now she holds up her finger "Wait, wait! I have an idea. So... he said they were in a room near the stairs leading down right? Well if we confront them there and we can't convince them to surrender they will likely run off to warn your sister right? So, wouldn't it be better if we drew them out of the room instead, bring them somewhere we have an advantage? If this man is to be trusted, why don't we send him in and get them to come back here? One of us can pretend to be captured and he can say that he captured us and needs their help to interrogate us or something like that? Then... then " she claps her hands together loudly "We spring our trap and cut off their escape."
She smiles at her lengthy suggestion of tricking their foes nodding to herself happily.
Shaedeen looks up from her looting of the bugbear's corpse to scowl a bit at the allegedly private conversation going on between Jes and Hollie. Then she pulls out her dagger and...Hey--what's she doing??!!
I've played the early parts of RotR before, and I seem to remember something else that Bruthazmus carried.... Didn't he have a necklace strung with elf ears? Shae's plan is the add the bugbear's ears to said necklace and present it to Shalelu, now that Hollie doesn't seem to want to be friends anymore. :D
Hollie nods as she considers Jessalissa's plan. She then says "I'll do it. They already said they wanted me alive anyway. I'll hold my hands behind me and we can pretend they are tied, even wrap a loose cord around them. Then you can convince them to come 'collect the others?'" she adds looking to Orik.
Bruthazmus, does, indeed have a string of elven ears around his neck. Do with it as you please.
"I'm not opposed to helping you draw those two out," Orik says, scrutinizing Jess to assess her intentions. "I know I'm not exactly in a position to bargain here, but I'm not helping unless you agree to take Lyrie alive. Tsuto can burn in Hell for all I care, but she doesn't deserve to die."
Jess shurgs "We're not a bunch of murder hobos... if she surrenders then I don't see any reason we can't take her alive, right?" She posses the question to Hollie.
”I don’t want anyone to die. Any who will surrender will be shown proper accord,” she says sincerely.
She then turns and folds her hands behind her back, ”Not too tight, I want to be able to slip free easily.”
Jess rushes over before anyone else gets a chance "Oh... oh... I've always wanted to tie someone up where I didn't have to worry about them actually trying to escape! I'll do it!"
She will come over and tie Hollies hands together behind her back. The first time she does it way too tight, and the second time it just keeps falling off. She taps her foot angrily and finally on the third try she gets it just right.
She steps around to the other side of Hollie and gives her a wink "There, just right I think!"
Hollie tests them and, once certain she can slip free easily, she nods to Jess and then turns to Orik. ”Alright. Let’s go.”
Matthias looks very worried about this plan and casts a spell on Bereket in preparation for trouble.